Landline Phones, Smorgy's, Warm Chestnuts, and Old Ladies

1. Started watching an episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

I have two more episodes. Then I'm done with the series, I guess. Are they planning to make a third season?

2. Saw, on IMDb, that season two of Upper Middle Bogan began in October 2014. So they're not way past due time for a third season.

3. Remembered Patrick Brammall is going to be in the reprised Offspring. Will he be too busy for Upper Middle Bogan?

Maybe not, because both shows don't have a huge amount of episodes. I'm betting he can multi-task.

4. Amused by scene on the show.

The Wheeler family hears a ringing, and they're mystified by the noise. They wonder what it is; then realize it's their landline phone. They haven't heard it in so long. They're about to answer it but instead let it ring a few times, because they're so thrilled to hear the sound.

We don't even have landline service anymore. We did, and it seemed the only calls we got were telemarketers.

Tim did call us on it sometimes, which I don't understand. It usually seems just as easy to call a cell phone.

Well, I guess the benefit of a landline is if you have multiple phones, you'll hear it ringing no matter where you are.  Sometimes my cell phone is downstairs charging while I'm upstairs. If someone calls, I won't hear.

5. Learned that the Smorgy's restaurant restaurant featured on Upper Middle Bogan is not fictional.

From what I'm seeing on Google, though, it seems to be closed.

6. Liked how Smorgy's was described on this website.   This was a chain of restaurants that looked like Polynesian barns, serving all-you-can-eat nursing-home food, located in suburbs that your dad visited to buy mulch.

I especially like the nursing home bit.

I can't say I hate buffet restaurants. There are a few in Disney World that have given me over-indulgent but kind of wonderful experiences.  But outside of that, most are fairly disgusting.

7. Watched a commercial for Smorgy's.

8. Remembered that there was a fairly decent buffet restaurant in Fort Worth. It was called Fresh Choice. I think the main feature was a salad bar and then they had pizza, pasta, and other stuff.

I don't remember the food being fantastic, but I also don't remember it being awful. It was a nice place to go when Jack was a toddler, because we didn't have to wait for the food. It's not easy doing table service when you have a young child.

9. Thought that the Smorgy's on the show didn't look like the Smorgy's I saw on the website and commercial.

Maybe it's a different version?

10. Thought that was a lovely episode. It made me have a bit of a tear; or a prelude to a tear, at least.

The episode dealt with adoptive mom/birth mom type of stuff.

11. Started watching my last episode of Upper Middle Bogan.

12. Looked up the theme song for Upper Middle Bogan.

It's "Comin' Home Baby" by an American musician named Mel Tormé.  Lord Wiki says Tormé is the guy who wrote "The Christmas Song". That's a pretty popular song in America. I wonder if it's also popular in Australia. It might not be fitting, since it talks about roasting chestnuts near a fire.

13. Wondered if anyone has written an Australian version of "The Christmas Song".

14. Started to watch video of Mel Tormé performing "Comin' Home Baby"

He's introduced by Judy Garland, which is kind of cool.

15. Thought that Mel Tormé is cute in a Rick Moranis kind of way.

16. Could not find an Australian version of "The Christmas Song".

I'm sure SOMEWHERE in Australia someone has written the song. Maybe they just don't know how to put it up on the Internet.  Or maybe it's on the Internet, and I'm doing a bad job of finding it.

I'd write the song myself if I was good at song-writing.

17. Thought the first line could replace chestnuts roasting on an open fire with something about prawns on the barbie.

OR...

What other seafood do people eat on the beach?

Maybe instead of Jack Frost nipping at toes, there could be something about sand stuck between toes.

18. Learned from Lord Wiki that Tormé says that he and Bob Wells actually wrote "The Christmas Song" on a very hot summer day as a way to keep their mind on cold things.

That's funny.

It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode. The people were dying of heat but then it turns out they were dreaming; and in reality, they were dying of cold. Or maybe I have it reversed.

19. Liked that this Upper Middle Bogan episode was about an aging woman (Robyn Malcolm) feeling marginalized.

I hate that this happens...probably because I'm an aging woman.

Well, I guess all woman are aging. Unless they're vampires or zombies.  But the aging thing gets harder as the numbers get higher. The feeling marginalized part probably starts around age thirty, unfortunately.

It makes me think of various things.

First, I was slightly offended when watching Crash Course recently. Hank Green cheerfully defended Darwin's The Origin of Species by quoting Thomas Henry Huxley. Old ladies of both sexes consider it a decidedly dangerous book.

Old ladies is obviously used as an insult there.

Maybe Huxley had a bad relationship with his grandmother.

20. Couldn't remember the other things I thought I had been thinking about.

Oh well.

21. Wanted to say that I'm not against all jokes regarding aging.

I just found the Huxley one more offensive than funny.

It's kind of like the guy I met in college who used the word "Jewish" to refer to stupid things.

Although I DID love learning yesterday that Norwegians use the word "Texas" in replace of "Crazy". That's awesome.

See, but that's a positive, as far as I can tell. I think they mean crazy in a good way.

Huxley's reference to old ladies is very negative. He's talking about people who fear new ideas—uptight, rigid, etc.

22. Felt sad that I'm done with Upper Middle Bogan.

I hope they make more episodes.

23. Went to Random.org to find my next thing to watch.

It's the movie Newcastle.

I'll probably start watching that on Monday.

24. Saw from IMDb, that Gigi Edgley is in the movie. I know her from The Secret Life of Us and Farscape.

25. Saw kangaroos at the zoo.

We also sort of saw the crocodile, but it was far away and underwater.

It was our type of perfect zoo weather—Slightly cold, but not uncomfortable and rainy but not raining.

26. Remembered that we also saw cockatiels, and parakeets. We opted not to feed them, because they didn't look eager.

27. Opened up my package of Australian food from Simply Australian.

I took a picture with my phone, and then had a very hard time figuring out how to get the pictures onto my computer.

Am I stupid; or is Apple difficult sometimes?

Anyway, here are the photos.

My choice in purchase was based on what was on sale, except for the Allen's Party Mix.

All the other stuff is close to expiration, or past it. The Old Gold thing is close to five months past it's prime, but I'm guessing it will still be okay.


















28. Decided to post a photo of the zoo crocodile. I didn't take it this time.  It's from a past visit.

I decided, while I was uploading some photos to my computer, I might as well do a few others. Who knows if I'll ever be able to figure out the uploading process again.



I'm tempted to be impressed with my photography there, but I think really it's about the crocodile posing well.

29. Wanted to mention that Cherry Ripes remind me of Bran Nue Dae.

30. Went to palg1305's Flickr account.

Tonight I'm going to look at his University of Queensland album.

I looked at one of his University of Queensland albums before, but that was the Jacaranda one.  I think this is a non-Jacaranda one.

31. Impressed with this Tawny Frogmouth photo.

It's labeled as being from something called QUEST Cultural Day.

I wonder what that is.

32. Learned that QUEST stands for Queensland University Exchange Student Society.

33. Felt that they were kind of cheating, not calling it QUESS.

34. Wondered if Palg1305 is a QUEST member. Is he a student not from Australia? Where is he from?

I wonder if it's Mexico. He has a lot of Mexican albums.

35. Thought this Tawny Frogmouth looked a bit sad.

36. Saw that there are many Jacaranda photos in this album.

I like this one, for some reason. It feels like the world is being taken over by purple.

37. Ate some of the Old Gold bar.

It tasted great.


Read my novel: The Dead are Online